mtb-timeline

Lotus Bicycles

Sid and Ernst Star founded Lotus Bicycles in Syosset, New York in 1980, importing bikes made by Tsunoda Bicycle Corporation of Nagoya, Japan. ¹⁾. In 1990, Sid died and Ernst sold the brand to Inernational Design & License, which then sold the brand in 2000 to Group Lotus when Lotus stopped selling bicycles.

Ernst Star with daughter
https://classicjapanesebicycles.com/lotus/

1983 Pegasus

The steel shoulder strap welded into the frame is unique amongst mountain bikes. See further discussion in: shoulder. The quick release sliding seatpost is almost unique, but was also found on the 1983 Trek 850.

The 1983 Pegasus had a lugged frame, Suntour Mountech derailleurs front and rear, and a 5 speed Suntour freewheel paired with a Sugino triple. 29.75 pounds. ²⁾

1983 Pegasus thepaceline

1984 Pegasus

Components nicely upgraded to Shimano Deore XT.

1984 Pegasus bikeforums

1985 Pegasus

Identical to the 1984 in every way. Later Lotus mountain bikes dropped the built in shoulder strap.

1985 Pegasus electricbikereview

Steel Shoulder Straps

Modern cyclocross bikes have oval top tubes, which works well for most shoulders, but mountain bikes borrowed from older cyclocross and embraced nylon shoulder straps starting around 1980. Modifying the frame was rarely done - but is not unique to the Lotus Pegasus.

1974 Gitane Country tontonvelo

Gitane welded these onto frames as far back as 1974 on their Country cyclocross bike. ³⁾

t 1983 Kobe Cascade reddit

The 1983 Kobe Cascade, which looks exactly like a Lotus Pegasus (components are all new) has the same frame “quirk.”

1984 Raleigh Elkhorn classiccyclesus

Many early frames had holes drilled for bolt on shoulder straps. This was true of at least the following collected in this timeline:

• 1980 Chris King
• 1981 Moots Mountaineer
• 1983 Ibis
• 1983 Jamis
• 1982 Salsa
• 1984 Raleigh
• 1984 Ross

And many more. Even Ritchey used them on later models.

Production Notes

[1]. ?